Rocket Boosters and Confidence Boosts 🚀💪
I’m back!
If you can read those words without singing “from outer space!” on reflex, then I don’t think we can be friends.
Speaking of space, Jeff Bezos went to it. In a spacecraft that made every 90’s kid wonder if Dr. Evil owns Amazon. That was in July, which feels like seven thousand years ago.
That story was still topical when I started writing this. Then life got in the way—as life is wont to do sometimes.
While I haven’t been touring space in my own *ahem* pocket rocket during this time, I have been working on some rad new ways to squeeze more beautiful boldness into this year. (Figuring out how to talk about Bezos’s galactic gigglestick without getting sent to your spam folder is no easy feat. It’s also the reason my job is the best job.)
For a quiet person, I have a lot to say.
There are always too many ideas, plans, and topics hurtling through my grey matter. I have to get them out, lest my head blast off like the rocket boosters on a billionaire’s space asparagus. (I can do this all day!)
This is one of the many reasons why daily writing is one of the best things I can do for myself. Aside from putting my face on a very soft cat, writing is the best form of self-care I know.
Writing is a form of mental and emotional hygiene for me. When I don't do it for a while, it's obvious. Have you ever reached for the box of Lucky Charms on the top shelf after waiting a liiiiiiittle too long to shower and caught a wee whiff? Um, yeah, me either... đź‘€ But if I had done that, it would be an apt metaphor for what happens when I stop writing.
Things. Get. Stanky.
I could argue that my most recent writing sabbatical was necessary. Situations arose in my life that required my full and immediate attention. I'm happy with the way I’ve managed those things (self-awareness or the win!). But I still have to write my way through the stinky bits now.
It's a tedious process of draining out thousands and thousands of words in hopes of pulling together a few cohesive thoughts. This post is probably attempt thirty-seven at writing something fit to publish.
At one point during The Great Word Purge of 2021, I sat down to write an inspirational piece about what these recent struggles have taught me. It was pretty solid at first. Then it went rogue. After winding through six unrelated topics, I stopped when I realized I was penning a treatise on Jesus symbolism in Liberation Theology. I. Shiteth. Thee. Not.
(​Fun fact: I studied religions as an undergrad! But I'm guessing you’re not here for my essays on religious philosophy, so I’ll spare you. #knowyouraudience)
Someone once asked Sportswriter Red Smith if he saw writing as a chore. His response?
"Why, no. You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed."
This post is getting a little heavy on bodily function analogies, but Ol' Red's not wrong.
Writing ain't easy. Yet for me—and so many other bold introverts—it is necessary. It's the best way I know to set free the things that bang around inside my chest.
All this brings me to the point of this post (Nope, not rocket euphemisms!): Confidence.
Knock-down-drag-outs with confidence issues were routine for much of my life, especially when it came to how to use my voice. When I started writing articles and blogs—and gave myself permission to do so in my own voice—I discovered how generative the process is. Using my voice, rather than a sanitized (read: boring) one that’s palatable to all readers, gave me the confidence I needed to do it again.
After a long stretch without regular writing, it’s easy to forget how all this works. I can struggle to find the confidence to begin again. But when I do begin again? Damn, it feels good.
So I've started on a project designed to help you get the same benefit. We'll be talking a lot more about confidence—and the ripple effect it has in our lives. We’ll talk about writing too, but it’s more about finding and using your voice in whatever form you choose.
My motto, for my life and my company, is: “You don’t have to raise your voice to raise some hell.” Loud and confident are not synonymous.
Raising hell means shaking things up. It means having the courage to try things without knowing if they’ll succeed. And it means speaking up with authenticity when it counts.
So hang with me, Bold Introvert. We’re in for a good time!